Which roaster should a rookie roaster start with

Hi all,

I am pretty new here. I am looking for an entry level roasting machine, say anything up to about 1k. I would prefer something that can roast around 300-500g at a time. From looking around it seems the Behmor 1600 Plus might be my best option. Does anyone have any other roasters that I should also consider? If spending a bit extra gets me bigger batch sizers or a better quality roast then I would also consider it.

Currently I am roasting small quantities in a pop corn maker. The end result tastes better than beans I purchase but it is a bit hit and miss and I need to roast multiple batches a day to keep up with my consumption. :-)

Very hard to recommend anything other than the Behmor Plus from a value, performance and batch size capability.

If you want to go for larger batch sizes, say up to a Kilo, then you either have to look at something approaching $K4-5 and higher or cobble together your own version of a BBQ Roaster, Corretto or similar. The thing with DIY roasters of course, is that because it is unique, you have to develop your own operational method and guidelines. Plenty of willing and experienced CSers here though, happy to offer advice to get you started...

Hi Shewey
If you don't want to lay out huge $$$$$ a Corretto or KKTO set-up would be the way to go, both produce great roasts at a very reasonable outlay, plenty of posts on both set-ups on CS.
cheers
Trevor

A second hand bread machine and heat gun are about the cheapest, except for the colander and wooden spoon method (and nothing wrong with that either!), decent batch size roaster you can get for great results. Take a hundgy from your grand, bulid a BM set up and try that out and you might be surprised how really simple and effective the method is, you can still get a retail roaster from a sponsor with the remaining 900 should you be dissatisfied -and sell on your BM kit.

I started with a Behmor 1600 Plus eighteen months ago. 100 roasts later not one stuff up, beautiful even roasts, machine has not skipped a beat, easy to us, and with the cheaper cost of green beans it has well and truly paid for itself. Highly recommended.

Thank you to everyone for your responses and great info. I think I will give the Behmor a go, however first I will go over to my parents place to see if they still have their old bread maker that they never use. :-)

Nick, I suspect you are right about roasting never keeping up with coffee consumption. :-)

I think you are on the right track, behmor is a sweet spot in price vs capacity and very repeatable.
Only draw backs for me is it's programming can get in the way sometimes, e.g. the auto safety features (when you are more advanced) and maximum roasting times can have you swearing. Also hard to fit a temp probe for measuring bean temp (which I've recently discovered makes the job way easier).

Use it as its intended and you'll learn a heap about roasting before investing more money. Won't lose much on resale either.

Personally, I wouldn't sell it on if you went with a larger drum style roaster later on some time.
There are plenty of times that you need to roast small batches of a particular bean because they require a very different profile to the rest of the components of a blend. A larger roaster may not accommodate small batches very well...

...Only draw backs for me is it's programming can get in the way sometimes, e.g. the auto safety features (when you are more advanced) and maximum roasting times can have you swearing. Also hard to fit a temp probe for measuring bean temp (which I've recently discovered makes the job way easier).
...

The auto timed turn off at 75% initial roast time can be a pita, I just set a timer to remind me to press the start button to stop the shut down.

I have never run out of roast time and have done batches over 600g. You can just keep pressing C to increase time. If there is a limit to total time you shouldn't get close to it.

The probe was a concern to me initially as I wanted bean temp (having moved from a corretto) but you can easily mount the bead probe to measure the bean temp, and its fully reversible (apart from the small hole in the drum spindle which you can see and doesn't affect anything). Do a search for wiper bean temp.

I would go corretto if you want to minimise outlay and like to diy and tinker, otherwise the Behmor.